Pair Of Folding Pricket Candlestick

Two brass Pricket Travel Candlesticks.

These two Japanese candlesticks were designed by Tanaka Hisashige and are made out of pressed and cut sheet brass. Tanaka was a Japanese inventor born in 1799 and designed these kaichu shokudai or folding candlesticks around 1834 to 1837. They are ingenious in their simplicity yet clever in making the most out of retaining the principle that 'flat' metal allows you to end up with a flat, easily packed candlestick. When set up, the candlesticks still have a two-dimensional look to them but this is alleviated by the cut shape to the three legs and the graduated, hourglass shape to the three parts of the column. The hinged legs will fold flat against each other and are shaped to correspond to the three graduated parts of the column so that they will neatly wrap around them. The removable disc drip pan has a bar to the underside which fixes it to the centre hole of the three folded legs. The three parts of the column are each made from two pieces of brass but the middle section is fixed to resemble a single piece. This is so that the top and bottom sections can overlap and sandwich the middle section to its ends to form a joint. The joints are fixed with rivets through a domed cap.

When packed down for travel the thickness of the candlestick is reduced to half an inch with the remaining dimensions 3 and half inches square. Although probably produced as a more affordable form of travel lighting, these candlesticks are a great design. We have had only two in the past and both were polished brass. These two retain their original bronzed finish and are both good examples of a hard to find form of travel candlestick. Mid to late 19th Century.

Size for use is given.